The Android Site

T-Mobile announced today the upcoming Garminfone, which should be available this spring. Sporting a 3.5″ touchscreen and running Android 1.6 to start with, it also features 3G, wifi, a 3MP camera, and of course GPS. And you’ll probably be getting some of the best navigation and mapping available on any Android phone with voice and on-screen directions, text-to-speech, rerouting, as well as walking and public transportation directions. Garmin also packed in custom, travel-centric apps for real-time traffic, local events, movie listings, gas prices and more. Combined with all the other goodness of an Android phone with mediocre specs, and T-Mobile should be moving a fair amount of these, but HTC has no need to be worried, this is no super phone.

BELLEVUE, Wash., Apr 21, 2010 (BUSINESS WIRE) — T-Mobile USA, Inc. today announced the upcoming, exclusive availability of the new Garminfone(TM), the first Android(TM)-powered smartphone fully integrated with Garmin’s premium navigation experience. Anticipated to be available later this spring, Garminfone is a sleek, full-touch 3G smartphone with a large 3.5-inch screen integrated with Garmin’s robust navigation experience for fast and reliable navigation from the middle of town to the middle of nowhere — and back.

“The Garminfone brings together two increasingly popular devices in one state-of-the-art package, delivering a rich, unique experience that no other smartphone or standalone navigation device can offer,” said George Harrison, vice president, marketing product innovation, T-Mobile USA. “Busy people balancing personal and professional lives are increasingly seeking smartphones, and the deep integration of Garmin navigation into the smartphone features of this device helps them do more with one device to more simply navigate their busy lives.”

Cliff Pemble, president and COO, Garmin International, said, “As the North American leader in Personal Navigation Devices, Garmin sought to partner with the leading carrier of Android smartphones, T-Mobile USA, to bring our first Android device to market. Garmin’s advanced, user-friendly navigation technology is used by millions of people every day, and the combination of Garmin’s rich navigation services on the Android platform simply makes Garminfone a must-have device for families, individuals, travelers, commuters, and professionals alike.”

Garminfone features Garmin’s industry-leading personal navigation experience integrated throughout the device including the following:

– Integrated Navigation + Smartphone Experience: Garminfone delivers navigation capabilities beyond what other smartphones and standalone navigation devices provide. Customers can navigate to an address simply by clicking on it from a text message or e-mail, contact, calendar appointment, or web page. Garminfone can even remember where you are parked and navigate you back to your car. The 3-megapixel camera with autofocus automatically geotags images so you can navigate back to where your family vacation photos were taken, e-mail geo-tagged images to friends and family members, or post geo-tagged pictures on the Web for others to enjoy. Helpful Garmin travel applications such as dynamic, real-time traffic; weather local events; movie listings; and gas prices are pre-installed and easy to access and use.

– Garmin Navigation: Driving, walking and public transportation navigation with voice and on-screen directions and automatic re-routing are deeply integrated into the smartphone features of Garminfone to simplify navigating your daily life. On-board North American maps offer fast and reliable directions — whether in or out of cell phone coverage — and multiple overlapping positioning technologies ensure Garminfone customers have one of the best location and navigation experiences a smartphone can offer. In addition, Garminfone utilizes text-to-speech technology to speak street names, and the screen automatically switches between day and night modes for easier viewing while driving.

– Garmin Voice Studio: Garminfone is the first to feature Garmin Voice Studio, an Android application, which allows customers to record and share custom voice directions from family and friends.

Garminfone also includes a convenient charging window and dashboard mount, enabling customers to easily navigate and charge the phone’s battery simultaneously.

In addition to the comprehensive navigational features, the Garminfone is built on the Android operating system offering a rich mobile Web experience with integrated Google(TM) mobile services including Google Search by voice, Google Maps(TM), YouTube(R) and access to Android Market, where customers can find thousands of applications to further enhance their travel experience and their daily lives. The mobile Web browser experience includes enhanced functions including pinch and zoom capability and embedded location awareness, which links information found on the Web to navigation and mapping functions, allowing users to navigate directly to a location from a Web page.

The powerful mobile data experience Garminfone delivers is supported by fast data speeds via Wi-Fi and T-Mobile’s nationwide 3G network*. Garminfone also offers essential smartphone features such as easy access to personal and work e-mail, including support for Microsoft(R) Exchange e-mail, contacts and calendar; social networking; instant messaging; an advanced music player; and a 3-megapixel autofocus camera.

Availability:

Garminfone is expected to be available in the U.S. exclusively to T-Mobile customers later this spring. For more information, please visit http://www.garminfone.t-mobile.com.

Samsung and Sprint announced the latest Android offering from both companies, the Samsung Moment. Available November 1st for $179.99 on a two year contract, undercutting Samsung’s latest offering from T-Mobile, the Behold 2, by $20. This is the device previously thought to be called the InstinctQ, but obviously they wanted to differentiate it from the Instinct lineup. Featuring a 3.2-inch AMOLED touch screen, slideout 4-row QWERTY keyboard, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS, 3.5MP camera with a flash, proximity sensor and accelerometer. But one of the most important specs is the 800Mhz processor, which makes this one of the best spec’d Android handsets to date. At least until the rumored 1Ghz HTC Dragon or the Sony Xperia X3 come onto the scene.

Anyone planning on passing on the HTC Hero to get the Samsung Moment?

[Read via BGR]

The videos and pics were floating around for a while as the Click, and now HTC has official announced their newest Android handset, know as the HTC Tattoo. You can think of it as the Hero’s younger brother with a bit of attitude. It’s a full-featured smart phone sporting the standard Android features and the acclaimed HTC Sense UI. And decent specs for a device aimed at the low end of the smart phone market:

• 528MHz Qualcomm MSM7225 processor
• 512MB/256MB ROM/RAM
• 2.8-inch QVGA touchscreen LCD
• 900/2100MHz HSPA/UMTS
• GPS
• 802.11b/g Wifi
• Compass and accelerometer
• 3.2 megapixel autofocus camera
• And the much desired 3.5mm stereo headset jack

And per it’s namesake, customers will be able to design and purchase custom “tattooed” covers for the phone, or choose from popular choices. Just like the old Nokias with the snap-on faceplaces! Will the gimmick be enough to drive the average phone buyer to get this over a budget flip or slider phone? We’ll find out when the HTC Tattoo is rolled out in Europe next month, and to the rest of the world in the next few months. No word on carriers or pricing yet, but you can imagine this will be a lot less than the similar featured Hero.

What would you put on your HTC Tattoo?  And how long before an Apple fanboy gets one adorned with the Apple logo?

[Press release]

This is the Sunno S880 a new smart phone headed to China around the middle of October. What makes is unique is that it will be running Android and Windows Mobile. It’s unclear if it’s a dual-boot configuration or simultaneous running of both OSes. Specs include a 806MHz processor, 8-MP camera, 3.6″ WVGA display, GPS navigation, Wi-Fi connectivity and 128MB or 256MB RAM. No word on if this will be coming to Europe or North America, but you can bet people will at least be talking about it.

[Read via Cloned In China]

We introduced you to the Brightkite for Android application a few weeks ago. It’s now official out of Beta status and released as version 1.0 to the Android Market.

A quick recap: Brightkite is a location based social network that lets users share with their friends their location, notes, and photos, all in real-time via the web, applications, email or even SMS. The Android application allows for easy check-ins, posting of notes and photos, as well as all the other features of Brightkite.

Grab it now, just search for Brightkite in the Android Market.

*UPDATE* Here’s the official annoucement on the Brightkite Blog.

What we have here is the H7, from Chinese manufacturer Haier shown off at their booth at CommunicAsia 2009. Featuring a 2.8-inch touch-screen display, Wi-Fi/Bluetooth connectivity, FM radio, GPS, and a 2-MP camera with “onboard flashlight”. The picture above is just a non-working mockup, so no word on how it compares to HTC or Samsung handsets. The H7 is supposed to cost about $150 when it’s launched in France in September.

Anyone else notice a trend of new Android handsets looking nearly the same?

[via Cnet]

Quick update for those of you using the Brightkite Beta application, there’s a small upgrade available. Version 1.2 is out with a few fixes. Go here to scan the QR code or download the apk here.

Here’s a list of what’s changed:

• “I am…”: Fixed crashes when location providers unavailable
• “I am…”: If location provider is unavailable, prompts the user to open location preferences by tapping the “I am…” cartouche
• “I am…”: If location is available, tapping the “I am…” cartouche now goes to that place’s detail
• [Cupcake only] Post Photo: fixed issue where holding down the camera button would take multiple pictures
• [Cupcake only] Post Photo: added Autofocus for both camera button and trackball. Half-pressing camera button should focus, full press should take photo. Pressing the trackball will focus, releasing trackball should take photo.
• [Cupcake only] Post Photo: Photos should preserve the orientation in which they were taken (already worked pre-cupcake)

You may also want to check out the Known Issues page.

The Brightkite application that was demoed at Google I/O is now out in public beta announce via Brightkite’s official account on Brightkite. For those that are not familiar, Brightkite is a location based social network that lets users share with their friends their location, notes, and photos, all in real-time via the web, applications, email or even SMS.

With applications out for Blackberry and iPhone platforms, it was only a matter of time before they gave us more Android love, the most recent being the addition of Google Gears support on i.brightkite.com. Those of you that have been using i.brightkite.com on the web or have used the iPhone application are going to love the Android version. Even in Beta form, the interface is very slick and polished. All the features are there, including guessing your location via GPS or cell towers. Viewing placestreams and friends is all just a click away. It’s also very easy to upload photos from the phone or take a photo and post instantly to your Brightkite stream. And for those of you that like privacy, there’s an easy one-click button to hide your location right on the home screen. You can also search the public Brightkite universe easily.

If this is the Beta, I can’t wait to see what other goodies they’re going to add for us in later releases. After all, there already is a project that lets you auto check-in via Google Latitude.

The application is not in the Android Market yet. You can download it here, or scan the QR code below with Barcode Reader on your Android handset:

What started as an employee’s 20% project at Google is now a fantastic companion to using Google Maps to find places on your Android phone. From the Official Google Mobile Blog:

As the name implies, Places Directory allows you to browse nearby places in categories like Restaurants, Movie Theaters, Hotels and Banks. You’ll see distance and directions to the destination, and if you tap on the listing, we’ll show ratings and photos. You can also call the business or view its location on Google Maps.

Similar to the Where or Restaurant Guide applications, Places Directory is more of a category-based system than a regular search. By using your GPS to locate your position, you can view places around you easily and see how far they are, then one-touch call or view them on Google Maps. The photos and ratings are also a nice touch if you’re contemplating a restaurant you’ve never heard of, although less consesequential with places like banks or gas stations. You can also save places to Favorites or share a place via SMS or Gmail.

I, for one, am really happy to see such high-quality applications coming from the good people at Google. From Google Finance to Sky Map to this, and of course all the other Android optimized apps and mobile sites. Keep up the good work, Google.

The application is available in the Android Market now. Just search for “Places Directory.”

[via Google Mobile Blog]

Another screenshot of the HTC Hero Android 1.5 firmware. This time showing the HTC Footprints software from the HTC Cruise. Which let’s you capture “Postcards” and tag them with GPS coordinates for review by place. Nothing groundbreaking here, but it’s cool to see some new software running on phones we can’t get our paws on yet.